(https://commons.wikimedia.org)
January 29 is Thomas Paine Day, which is a time to remember one of the most important, but often forgotten, writers of the American Revolution. His pamphlet Common Sense was one of the main reasons that the majority of colonists came to support the revolution against England and for independence.
He was born and raised in Britain, and he became embroiled in legal problems for advocating the abolition of royalty. Afterwards, he would support the French Revolution, and he also ran into problems there, only to be imprisoned. He was later released because of influence by the American government.
(ahttps://en.wikisource.org)
He was a revolutionary thinker and a representative of the Romantic movement, in which individual rights and revolution in all aspects of life and society were encouraged.
Paine went on to write several other important works, including Rights Of Man and The Age of Reason. If you have not read these works, I recommend all of them!
Like many of the other intellectuals of this time, Paine was a Deist and let his ideas be known. As a result of his forthcoming, he suffered being ostracized by many of those whom he had helped.
He should be remembered, however, for his contributions to the United States of America, to human rights, and to literature.
One of the greats. We’ve been to his birthplace in Thetford. A man ahead of his time,
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Yes, he certainly was.
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Thomas Paine, a remarkable man, without whom, and others, we would not have the democracy we now have, what is in fact, on the verge of becoming a theocracy managed by a plutocracy. Go figure why Americans may want this, easier just to move to Russia.
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Yes, it is, and what a terrible future this might be.
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Charles, thank you so much! Yes, and I hope that I am wrong. Karen
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Karen, You are very welcome.
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Reblogged this on K. D. Dowdall and commented:
Thank you, Professor French for letting us remember Thomas Paine. A remarkable thinker, Thomas Paine, whom without him and others, we may not have had the democracy we now enjoy, that is presently under great stress. It seems as though we may be moving toward a theocracy managed by a plutocracy.
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You are very welcome, and what a frightening thought that is, and I fear you may be correct.
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Thank you for reminding us of Thomas Paine. His contributions to America are important.
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You are very welcome.
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Thank you!
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A true democrat and patriot. Paine is admired and envied by many of us who haven’t the pleasure of styling ourselves Americans but read with as much reverence the Common Sense, The Rights of Man and the beginning of The American Crisis as we do the Declaration of Independence. His last years and death are a story of shame though, not on his part but on the part of those Americans who abandoned and reviled him.
(I discuss somewhat his debate with Edmund Burke here: https://puttingupwithit709003799.wordpress.com/2018/07/15/thomas-paine-over-edmund-burke/ ).
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I agree with you, and Paine should never have been abandoned by the country he helped to create.
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